Happy Thanksgiving, Gopher! May your amateur athletic team choices prosper in their sundry competing events! And your professional athletic teams as well. And may they all come to your house and clog your closet with autographed uniform pieces of great monetary value, and even greater personal value!

Tomorrow we’re getting Starbucks, a few hours later we’re eatin’ turkey @ Cracker Barrel, they’re gonna feed us catered food @ work, I’ll probably get to help set-up for the first wave…which means less time on my salad way, and on Friday my section of the store gets to stand and happily watch while the ‘retail’ parts of the store go crazy.
I’m totally thankful/grateful. LoL

I’ll be making a ham to take to the family dinner (dad-in-law will never eat another bird since he saw them eating the dead in the Pacific a long time ago so we have turkey and ham) along with secret recipe garlic mashed potatoes and wife is making a desert.

This is what happens when you ban guns and the hunting of turkeys or other game, as MA does. They proliferate in such an environment to the point of being so hungry they don’t have a choice but to attack.

In sane places, like Texas (Austin the exception), you can hunt turkey, with permits. It is hard to kill them since you need to aim and shoot right under their necks so as not to destroy the good meat, but these bastards are never still. So, it’s an art, really.

But when you make a good kill on a wild turkey, and you field dress him and prep him and then fry him up in a big-ol’ fryer, you’ve gone as close to Heaven as you can get without dying.

I was trying to Google up a Turkey Poem, but all I got was a bunch of teachers asking for turkey poems. But I got close: This is a Turkish Poem, “Thinking of You,” by Nazım Hikmet:

Thinking of you is pretty, hopeful,
It is like listening to the most beautiful song
From the most beautiful voice on earth…
But hope is not enough for me any more,
I don’t want to listen to songs any more,
I want to sing.

I’m not saying smoking is a good idea or anything like that but it ain’t necessarily the boogie-man either.

I am a smoker for 50 years. I have COPD (lung capacity disease) and am on daily maintenance drugs plus steroids.

Three years ago I switched to little cigars right before my coughing got so bad I had to deal with it. When they diagnosed me, they told me that it didn’t matter if I quit smoking except for a longer lifespan if I did quit. They were emphatic that the disease is progressive and that nobody ever gets better. Sort of rate-of-decline varies but everybody is going downhill.

Yet today my blood oxygen saturation levels are higher than three years ago and my stress tests are better. They have no explanation. My explanation is that the doctors don’t know everything and that just because everybody thinks it is so doesn’t make it so.

The United States will now undergo a four-year stress test of American liberalism, as Obama will get his tax hike and ObamaCare will be implemented. Those who think Obama cared about people like them will now experience the full extent of his caring.

I am thankful there are sites like this with passionate people who contribute in the comment sections. You all care about the country and do what you can to make a difference. One thing thing I can’t stand is apathetic people. Well, none of you are that (that’s for sure!), even if you are at each other’s throats on here sometimes. I learn so much and always get a laugh reading the comments each morning.

FOREASMUCH as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of
their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.

It having pleased Almighty God, through the course of the present year, to bestow great and manifold mercies on the people of these United States; and it being the indispensable duty of all men gratefully to acknowledge their obligations to Him for benefits received:

Resolved, That it be, and hereby is recommended to the legislative or executive authority of each of the said states, to appoint Wednesday, the 30th day of December next, to be observed as a day of public thanksgiving and praise, that all the people may, with united hearts, on that day, express a just sense of his unmerited favors; particularly in that it hath pleased him, by his overruling providence, to support us in a just and necessary war, for the defense of our rights and liberties, by affording us seasonable supplies for our armies, by disposing the heart of a powerful monarch to enter into alliance with us, and ai
d our cause; by defeating the councils and evil designs of our enemies, and giving us victory over their troops; and, by the continuance of that union among these states, which, by his blessing, will be their future strength and glory.

And it is further recommended, that, together with devout thanksgiving, may be joined a penitent confession of our sins, and humble supplication for pardon, through the merits of our Savior; so that, under the smiles of Heaven, our public councils may be directed, our arms by land and sea prospered, our liberty and independence secured, our schools and seminaries of learning flourish, our trade be revived, our husbandry and manufactures increased, and the hearts of all impressed with un-dissembled piety, with benevolence and zeal for the public good. And it is also recommended, that recreations unsuitable to the purpose of such a solemnity may be omitted on that day.

Done in Congress, this 17th day of November, 1778, and in the third year of the independence of the United States of America.

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;– for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;– for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;– and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;– to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

I am thankful there are sites like this with passionate people who contribute in the comment sections. You all care about the country and do what you can to make a difference. One thing thing I can’t stand is apathetic people. Well, none of you are that (that’s for sure!), even if you are at each other’s throats on here sometimes. I learn so much and always get a laugh reading the comments each morning.

Ah, ok. I know that area a little. Near Shinagawa, I guess. I’m about 10 minutes west of Shinjuku.

But yeah, having any sort of special meal with your kid and wife sounds nice on Thanksgiving.

There’s a big international market in Hiroo that always manages to have Stove Top though. So at least stuffing’s never a problem. Ha. Still, there’s always the Christmas Story route – plenty of Chinese restaurants serving duck.